I am concerned about the Tassie Devils. In particular the ones on the eastern coast of Tasmania where there has also been reportings of rare cancers in humans and you may remember the oyster kill there some time ago mentioned in the news papers.It has been scientifically proven that a fire retardant has been found in those Tassie Devils.

The plantation of native trees on eastern coast of Tassie are modified to have a fire retardant in them.

That is really concerning. I assume the plantation is being made fire retardant so they can produce more products without having to worry about it catching fire? You have to wonder how people can justify "protecting" one species for economic use and not caring about others.

It worries me that people fly off the handle and get upset without first exploring the background to what they get indignant about. Can the first poster give me the reference in a peer reviewed journal for the finding of fire retardant in TDs? Second, can we also have a true reference that even if the first was true, this is the cause of the facial tumours?Second poster: TDs are protected, and have been for a long time. And fire retardant is not used to make trees fire proof but to slow a fire down in case of a bushfire, and since Australia has only recently emerged from a very long period of severe drought, there have been many bushfires, and if you have ever seen what a fire like that can do when the wind is up and how fast it goes and grows, you will understand the use of retardant to slow it down and try to limit damage, especially when such fires approach human habitation. At other times, the only thing one can do is let a fire burn while making firebreaks around it, but often, there is no time.Both posters: The problem with the facial timours is that they are infectious, and since TDs do a lot of scrapping between themselves, being carrion eaters and competing for juicy prizes, the tumour has spread fast and wide, and few areas now are free of it. Hence a major effort is underway to protect the unaffected animals, by fencing them in, and catching some and removing some of them to island sanctuaries and zoos. As well, a second research effort is aimed at finding treatment and maybe vaccines against it - it was quite a surprise and highly unusual to find an infectious tumour (as opposed to tumours due to infections). Hope that will set your minds at rest....